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BRITAIN-DIPLOMACY-US
Johnson says UK should welcome Trump
LONDON, Jan 21, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson
called for US President Donald Trump to be welcomed to the UK, warning Sunday
that resisting a visit risked damaging his country’s national interest.
A day ahead of Johnson welcoming his US counterpart Rex Tillerson to
Britain for talks, Johnson said postponing any Trump trip would be acting
against the UK’s “single most extraordinary economic relationship”.
“Donald Trump is the elected president of the world’s greatest and most
powerful democracy — and a country that also happens to be our closest
ally,” Johnson wrote in The Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
He said critics of a Trump visit were ignorant of Britain’s economic
interests.
“In opposing the visit of the president of the United States to this
country, they risk actually damaging the national interest.”
Johnson rejected claims that Trump was presiding over an “isolationist
America”.
He said Trump’s administration deserved “respect and recognition” rather
than “infantile denigration”.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0914 hrs